King Kai
|Race=Shin-jin |Gender=Male |Date of birth= |Date of death=May 26, Age 767 |Address=King Kai's planet |Occupation=Kai |FamConnect= Future King Kai (alternate timeline counterpart) Supreme Kai (superior) Grand Kai (boss) East Kai (fellow Kai) West Kai (fellow Kai) South Kai (fellow Kai) King Yemma (student) Olibu (student) Mijorin (student) Sarta (student) Goku (student) Piccolo (student) Yamcha (student) Tien Shinhan (student) Chiaotzu (student) Krillin (student) }} King Kai (界王, Kaiō; lit. "King of the Worlds"), or North Kai (北の界王, Kita no Kaiō; lit. "North Kaio" or "North King of the Worlds"), is a supporting protagonist in the ''Dragon Ball'' manga and the animes Dragon Ball Z and Dragon Ball GT. He is a deity, the ruler of the North Galaxy, and Goku's final martial arts teacher, and later mentor. He also taught Yamcha, Tien Shinhan, Piccolo and Chiaotzu. Overview Appearance King Kai wears Teashade sunglasses, and owns a Red 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air Hardtop. He has a very short stature and has pair of cricket-like antennae, which he uses to have psychic conversations with others across the universe. Personality King Kai has a strong sense of humor, so much so that before he can agree to train someone, they have to make him laugh, and he tells very bad jokes. He possesses great intelligence and knowledge about the universe, and specializes in universal telepathic links. Even though he was already weaker than Vegeta before he taught Goku, King Kai is still a veritable library of skills, techniques and literally centuries of wisdom. He is a very strategic and elaborate when it comes to planning, as evident during the Frieza Saga. King Kai is a very eccentric mentor, as his methods training in martial arts appear to be very uncommon; such as making his student's first two tasks being catch his pet monkey Bubbles and hitting his butler cricket sprite Gregory with a hammer (the latter task only happened in the anime as filler). He can also be very immature, just like the rest of Kais, as he is seen consonantly gloating to the other Kais about the strength of his fighters in his quadrant and bickering with them as if they were brothers and sisters. Biography Early life Like all Shin-jins, King Kai was born on Planet Kaishin. He became a Kai and went on to live on his own planet located at the end of the Snake Way in the Other World. There, he lives with a monkey named Bubbles and a motor-mouth grasshopper named Gregory, and he spends his time counting the blades of grass, contemplating the heavens, and seeing how far he can pee. On his planet, he teaches powerful techniques such as the Spirit Bomb and Kaio-ken to those who visit him. The planet used to be so big that its diameter was about 100 times that of its current size and King Kai enjoyed his hobby, driving. Then, one day, the God of Destruction Beerus stopped by and they played a video game together (it was a car racing one). Beerus lost and the planet was destroyed by the peeved God of Destruction, so King Kai took a large leftover fragment, whittled it down to a sphere, and built a road on it so that he could have fun driving there."''Dragon Ball'' Q&A 7", Dragon Ball Full Color, Saiyan Saga volume 3, February 4, 2013 With the other Kais of the universe, King Kai fought and imprisoned the galaxy pirate Bojack and his team in a star. Dragon Ball Z Saiyan Saga When Goku is killed during the battle with Raditz, King Yemma tells him to visit King Kai and train with him if he wants to be strong enough to defeat the two other, much stronger Saiyans. Goku arrives on King Kai's planet after six months of running on the Snake Way to train for the coming battle against the Saiyans Nappa and Vegeta. At first, Goku confused Bubbles, King Kai's pet monkey, for King Kai himself, but the real King Kai informed Goku that Bubbles was just his pet. King Kai requires that Goku prove himself worthy by telling a joke. Goku manages to make King Kai laugh, but then King Kai learns Goku is not here to train in comedy. Before the training began, King Kai warned Goku that Nappa and Vegeta were stronger then he was, so Goku would need to at least surpass him if he wanted to stop them. As part of Goku's training, King Kai tells him to chase Bubbles, who happens to be very fast and has adjusted to the planet's gravity which is similar to the gravity on Planet Vegeta, about 10 times the gravity of Earth. After three weeks, Goku eventually caught Bubbles, which pleased King Kai. He then instructed him to hit Gregory on the head with a heavy mallet. In time, Goku accomplished this as well. Goku soon found that chasing Bubbles increased his speed greatly, and attempting to hit Gregory increased his strength massively, though it should be noted that the second task of hitting Gregory did not appear in the original manga (Gregory did not even exist in the original manga, with King Kai immediately training Goku directly after catching Bubbles), and was only in the anime. Soon before the Saiyans' arrival on Earth, Goku left for Earth after being revived, with King Kai witnessing the battle. Although Goku completed his physical training, King Kai sensed he still needed to work on his humor. Frieza Saga Soon after Vegeta retreated, Yamcha, Tien Shinhan, Piccolo and Chiaotzu took the journey on Snake Way and arrived on King Kai's planet faster than Goku for special training. King Kai warned Goku never to encounter Frieza, an intergalactic tyrant and (at the time) the most powerful being in the universe. Yamcha, Tien and Chiaotzu receive training from King Kai, with Piccolo opting out doing most of the training by himself (believing it to be silly and pointless catching Bubbles in mere seconds, compared to Goku's forty days, since the greater gravity is similar to his technique of wearing weighted clothing, which he frequently does in his training). However, he was surprised to see improvements in the other three's skills during a sparring match, though this took place only in the anime. As King Kai witnessed the battle against Frieza, the recently deceased Ginyu Force fought the Z Fighters (excluding Piccolo and Captain Ginyu, who were both on Namek and even had their own brief tussle) in training. The Ginyu Force were defeated by the Z Fighters and sent to Hell, which was rather impressive considering King Kai considered them to be most fearsome group in the universe, and at least five times stronger than Goku prior to training. This however happened in the anime only, and when considering that it took Goku over 150 days to improve to a point where he could defeat Nappa, the weaker of the two Saiyans that were considered to be nothing in comparison to even one member of the Ginyu Squad, it seems unlikely that they could have achieved such a dramatic increase in power in such a short time. However, it may be worth noting that they were able to spar with each other in addition to King Kai's training whereas Goku was trained alone. After Goku supposedly killed Frieza with the Large Spirit Bomb, King Kai soon noticed that Frieza was not defeated as originally thought, and Frieza injured Piccolo by piercing his chest, then killed Krillin. This heinous action caused Goku to transform into a Super Saiyan. Eventually Goku, in his new form, overwhelmed Frieza, leaving him to attempt to destroy Namek with a Death Ball. Although not instantly destroyed (due to Frieza's fear of being caught in its explosion), Frieza estimated that the planet would survive only five minutes longer. With Kami now revived, and the Dragon Balls collected, King Kai devised a plan to revive all those who had perished at the hands of Frieza and his minions throughout the past year. This would in turn revive Grand Elder Guru, who died because of the pain of seeing his children die by Frieza's great cruelty. Frieza powered up to full power (half of which he was using prior to Goku's transformation) and began to fight Goku. As Shenron resurrected all those who were killed by Frieza, Guru was brought back and so Porunga returned in front of the newly revived Dende. King Kai made telepathic contact with Guru to have Dende ask Porunga to teleport everyone off Namek to Earth, except Frieza. Goku interrupted, and requested that he, too, be left behind in order to ensure Frieza's defeat. King Kai objected, insisting that Goku's transformation had clouded his judgment, but Goku's determination eventually prevailed. With their plan revised, Guru sent Dende to make the final wish to Porunga to transport everyone off Namek to Earth, except Goku and Frieza. After defeating Frieza, Goku flew to Frieza's spaceship but found it was too heavily damaged, and seemingly died with the planet. Yamcha informed Bulma through King Kai of Goku's death. However, Bulma pointed out that with the Namekian Dragon Balls, Goku could be revived, along with Krillin and Chiaotzu, who were both killed twice. King Kai then said that though Chiaotzu could be revived, Goku and Krillin had died on Namek, and as Porunga resurrects people to the location at which they died, they would die again in the vacuum of space if they were wished back. However, Vegeta suggested wishing Krillin and Goku to the Earth's Check-In Station to the spirit world, then wish them back. They attempted this wish, and revived Krillin, but to the shock of everyone, including King Kai, Porunga states that Goku is still alive and refuses to get wished home. Trunks Saga King Kai (as well as everyone else aware of the events transpiring) is shocked when a boy from the future (Future Trunks) arrives and effortlessly defeats Frieza and his father, King Cold, who had traveled to Earth to exact revenge for Frieza's defeat on Namek. He even cheers for the young boy to defeat Frieza. Cell Games Saga Kami's fusion with Piccolo had left the Earth without a guardian, and the Dragon Balls had become inert, so when Goku planned to travel to New Namek to draft a new guardian, he enlisted King Kai's help in locating the planet. Later, when Cell had been bested by Gohan in battle, he initiated his self-destruction. Having only seconds to react, Goku used Instant Transmission to transport himself and the android to King Kai's planet. Cell's subsequent self-destruction killed Goku and King Kai (as well as King Kai's pets), who soon realized that Cell must have survived the explosion. This event releases Bojack and his team from their prison. With the help of King Kai's telepathy, Goku provided spiritual support for Gohan, who had been forced to engage Cell once again. Afterwards, Goku tells everyone after declining revival that King Kai had also declined to be revived so he could guide Goku around Other World. Great Saiyaman Saga Being dead does not seem to hamper King Kai's affairs, except that it is the source of great embarrassment for him to his fellow Kais (although he was extremely perturbed at Goku for sacrificing someone as holy as he was for a measly insignificant planet like Earth). As seen only in the anime, on Grand Kai's planet, a tournament is set up in commemoration of King Kai's death. Here, King Kai is revealed to be the North Kai. During this Other World Tournament, it is shown that King Kai's best fighter, aside from Goku, is Olibu. Goku and Pikkon, the student of King Kai's rival West Kai, make it to the finals. Goku seemingly emerges victorious, until Grand Kai disqualifies them both for touching the ceiling. Comically, he and West Kai make a bet on Goku and Pikkon's match: if Pikkon wins, King Kai will become West Kai's servant, but if Goku wins, King Kai will get West Kai's planet for himself. Since the match ends in a draw, neither wins the bet, although West Kai briefly seemed as if he was prepared to go back on the deal. Majin Buu Saga King Kai witnesses the entire situation when an ancient demon, Majin Buu, is revived thanks to the evil wizard Babidi. When Goku decides to confront the monster to distract him, transforming into his latest form, the Super Saiyan 3, as Majin Buu and Babidi wreak havoc on Planet Earth, King Kai constantly pleads to Goku from the Other World not to use this form whilst on Earth as it will deplete his energy far too quickly and he will be forced to return to Other World with nobody to stop Buu. Despite King Kai's protests, Goku transforms anyway, fulfilling his mission to distract Buu long enough so the Dragon Radar could be located and brought to Kami's Lookout. After several events which lead to a final confrontation with the original Kid Buu on the Sacred World of the Kais, Vegeta comes up with an idea to create a Super Spirit Bomb made of energy from the Earthlings in order to destroy Kid Buu: Dende and Kibito Kai travel to New Namek to summon Porunga and wish for Earth's restoration and the revival of the innocents killed since Babidi's arrival on Earth, and King Kai uses his telepathy for Vegeta, Goku, and Mr. Satan to talk to the people of Earth and persuade them to give their energy to form the Super Spirit Bomb. When Goku fires the Super Spirit Bomb, Kid Buu is still showing resistance, so the last wish is to restore Goku's strength, and Goku then transforms into a Super Saiyan and pushes the Spirit Bomb back. As Kid Buu is destroyed, King Kai watches and expresses his pride at having been the one to teach Goku the Spirit Bomb technique in the first place. ''Yo! Son Goku and His Friends Return!!'' & Battle of Gods King Kai, along with Bubbles and Gregory, are seen a few years later on Earth at Mr. Satan's banquet which celebrate Buu's defeat.Dragon Ball: Yo! Son Goku and His Friends Return!, 2008 King Kai is seen back on his planet when he, Old Kai and Kibito Kai are telepathically discussing the awakening of the God of Destruction Beerus. While running with Bubbles on King Kai's planet, Goku notices King Kai is discussing something interesting and King Kai then tells him about Beerus. King Kai scolds Goku when the latter says that he wants to battle Beerus. Soon, Beerus and his ally Whis arrive on King Kai's planet to question Goku about the Super Saiyan God. When they arrive on the planet, the God of Destruction complains that King Kai's planet is so small, but Whis reminds him that he is the reason it is so small for destroying it when getting mad after losing at hide-and-seek. When Goku, ecstatic over the new challenge, does not heed King Kai's advice and battles Beerus, King Kai and Bubbles hide in King Kai's house and witness the defeat of Super Saiyan 3 Goku while watching the battle through a window.Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods, 2013 King Kai then contacts Vegeta on Earth and warns him of Beerus, who may destroy Earth if anything annoys him. Dragon Ball GT Black Star Dragon Ball Saga In Dragon Ball GT, King Kai is still on Grand Kai's planet. During The Black Star Dragon Ball Saga, he warns Goku turned back into a child by the Black Star Dragon Balls and his family and friends of the dangers of the Black Star Dragon Balls. King Kai tells them that they have to retrieve all seven Black Star Dragon Balls scattered across the galaxy with only a year to find or the Earth explodes due to the negative energy left behind. Super 17 Saga Through Shadow Dragon Saga A year later, during the Super 17 Saga, King Kai is once again seen on his own planet; he warns Goku that the dead are escaping Hell, and he is also shown sick during this period. Later, on Grand Kai's planet again, King Kai assists Goku in forming the Universal Spirit Bomb to defeat Omega Shenron by forming a universal telepathic link for Goku to ask everyone throughout the universe to give their energy. Power It is revealed in Weekly Jump that King Kai has a power level of 3,500, which is the same power level as Piccolo in his battle against Nappa.Weekly Jump, issue 31st, 1989 In video games, his power level is 4,000 in Dragon Ball Z: Super Saiya Densetsu and 4,500 in Dragon Ball Z: Kyōshū! Saiyan. In the Frieza Saga anime-filler, while Recoome (whose power level is over 30,000) tries to brag over King Kai the latter replies that "Recoome is not strong enough to handle him", he later tells Chiaotzu that the dead members of the Ginyu Force are "not that though" (despite he himself considered them to be the most fearsome fighting squad in the universe, which each at least 5 time stronger than Goku's power against the Saiyans) which place him over 40,000 as most of them should be at. His power combined with the powers of the other Kais was enough to imprison Bojack who was on par with Super Perfect Cell. Techniques and special abilities Techniques he uses *'Flight' – The ability to fly with the use of ki. *'Energy Wave' – The most basic form of Ki Blast. Used in Dragon Ball Z: Legend of the Super Saiyan, Super Gokuden: Kakusei-Hen, and Dragon Ball Kai: Ultimate Butōden. *'Continuous Energy Wave' – A combination of many energy waves fired at a rapid rate. Used in Dragon Ball Z: Legend of the Super Saiyan. *'Hypnosis Technique' – King Kai uses this technique in Dragon Ball Z: Harukanaru Densetsu to oblige Vegeta to tell him jokes. *'Magic Materialization' – The ability to make objects appear. Used to give Goku new clothes before he leaves his planet for the battle against the Saiyans. In Ultimate Butōden, he uses it to make objects appear and throws them at his opponent. He can also summon his car in the game with this technique. *'Telekinesis' – His special technique in Super Gokuden: Kakusei-Hen. He uses it to paralyze his opponent in Ultimate Butōden. *'Telepathy' – King Kai's special ability which allows him to speak with his targets mentally. He uses his antennae to have psychic conversations with others across the universe; he uses this to communicate with Goku and the others, coordinate plans (the wishes to revive everyone who died on Namek and send them to Earth), and later warn Goku of potential danger to Earth. Anyone touching his back can piggyback on his telepathy. He can also allow anyone to communicate mentally with his targets thanks to his technique, as he does for Vegeta to convince everyone on Earth to contribute to Goku's Super Spirit Bomb. **'Far-Seeing ArtsDaizenshuu 7'', 1996 – Technique which allows those who live in the godly realms to see everything that happen in the lower realms. Techniques he teaches *Kaio-ken' – This technique is legendary, as the user is able to unlock the ultimate potential of themselves for a heartbeat, going past what their body should be able to handle normally, to the highest point seen in the series of 20 times the user's base power level. When using this technique, the user's body gets a reddish tinge and a strong red aura around themselves. Goku is the only person known to master this technique, as King Kai himself could not. *'Spirit Bomb' – This attack is arguably the most powerful in the series, depending on who is contributing the energy to it. The user puts their hands above their head and draws energy from all living things into one colossal sphere of energy. King Kai himself could not fully master this, and is astonished when Goku manages to destroy a speeding giant brick with one formed from his little planet. *'Instant Transmission' – Only in the FUNimation dub, King Kai claims he could have taught it to Goku the whole time (in the manga and Japanese versions, he merely comments that Goku must have learned the technique from the Yardrats). *'Kamehameha' – King Kai is the one who teaches Goku the Kamehameha in the video game ''Dragon Ball Z: The Legacy of Goku. Known Students *King Yemma *Olibu *Mijorin *Sate *Goku *Piccolo *Yamcha *Tien Shinhan *Chiaotzu *Krillin (only in the anime; after being killed by Super Buu, he trains along Yamcha under King Kai) *Unnamed Kanassan *Unnamed Shamoians Video game appearances *''Dragon Ball Z: Kyōshū! Saiyan'' *''Dragon Ball Z: Super Saiya Densetsu'' *''Dragon Ball Z III: Ressen Jinzōningen'' *''Cult Jump'' *''Dragon Ball Z: Super Butōden 2'' *''Dragon Ball Z: Buyū Retsuden'' *''Dragon Ball Z: Idainaru Son Goku Densetsu'' *''Dragon Ball Z: Goku Hishōden'' *''Dragon Ball Z Gaiden: Shin Saiyajin Zetsumetsu Keikaku - Chikyū-Hen'' *''Dragon Ball Z Gaiden: Shin Saiyajin Zetsumetsu Keikaku - Uchū-Hen'' *''Dragon Ball Z: Goku Gekitōden'' *''Dragon Ball Z: Super Gokuden: Kakusei-Hen'' *''Dragon Ball Z: The Legend'' *''Dragon Ball Z: Legendary Super Warriors'' *''Dragon Ball Z: The Legacy of Goku'' *''Dragon Ball Z: Buu's Fury'' *''Dragon Ball Z: Budokai'' *''Dragon Ball Z: Budokai 3'' *''Dragon Ball GT: Transformation'' *''Dragon Ball Z: Supersonic Warriors 2'' *''Super Dragon Ball Z'' *''Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 2'' *''Dragon Ball Z: Battle Taikan Kamehameha'' *''Dragon Ball Z: Bakuretsu Impact'' *''Dragon Ball Z: Shin Budokai - Another Road'' *''Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 3'' *''Dragon Ball Z: Harukanaru Densetsu'' *''Dragon Ball Z: Attack of the Saiyans'' *''Dragon Ball Kai: Ultimate Butōden'' (playable character) *''Dragon Ball: Tap Battle'' Voice actors *Japanese dub: Jōji Yanami *Ocean dub: Don Brown, Scott McNeil (DBZ episode 245 only) *FUNimation dub: Sean Schemmel *Blue Water dub: Dean Galloway *Latin American dub: Ricardo Hill, César Soto (Episodes 29 and 30), Sergio Castillo (Episode 200 onwards), Leonardo García (DBZ Kai), César Arias (DBZ Kai ep 55), Eduardo Fonseca (rest, DBZ Kai), Héctor Lee (Battle of Gods) *Portuguese dub: António Semedo *Brazilian dub: Walter Breda (Dragon Ball Z, GT, movies and specials), Renato Márcio (Dragon Ball Kai) *Polish dub: Andrzej Gawronski (Fusion Reborn only) *Hungarian dub: Péter Beregi, László Áron (DBZ ep. 270-271), Iván Verebély (DBZ ep. 278 onwards), Gábor Forgács (DBGT) Trivia )]] *Gregory says King Kai knows everything. This is likely an overstatement by Gregory, who deeply respects King Kai's abilities. He did not seem to know that Namekians only drink water, telling Piccolo "You're gonna need more than just water." He also is unaware of Cell until Goku mentions him, and thinks Frieza is dead after his supposed death by Goku. He also thought Goku was dead when Namek blew up. Goku even noted this inconsistency in ''Dragon Ball Z: Broly - The Legendary Super Saiyan. In the FUNimation dub, after Goku asked about this inconsistency, King Kai responds that it depends on his mood. Finally, in Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods, he did not know anything about the Super Saiyan God. *King Kai is the only one of the four Kais to die during the Dragon Ball series. *King Kai was not revived with the rest of Cell's victims, presumably because Shenron was instructed to "...revive all those on Earth killed by Cell". Since King Kai lived and died in Other World, he would be exempt from the wish. In the last episode of Dragon Ball Kai, King Kai was revived along with Cell's other victims, unlike the original anime which he did not. In the manga, King Kai says that he refused to be revived so he could guide Goku around the Other World. *In the Cell Games Saga, King Kai states that he has the ability to use Instant Transmission (this is stated only in the anime, while in the manga, King Kai was amazed by the existence of Instant Transmission). But earlier, after Goku had finished his training under King Kai in the Saiyan Saga, he told Goku would have to travel back along Snake Way in order to get back to Earth to help defeat the Saiyans in the time instead of simply taking him there himself or at least to the Check-In Station like Goku had assumed. Gallery See also *King Kai (Collectibles) References Category:Characters Category:Characters who can fly Category:Deities Category:Kings Category:Males Category:Martial Artists Category:Z Fighters Support Category:Characters with on-screen deaths who remain deceased